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Author: 


Parlin,  Charles  Coolidge 


Title: 


The  merchandising  of 
textiles 

Place: 

Philadelphia 

Date: 

[1914] 


^4^-920^  ^ 


MASTER   NEGATIVE   « 


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PRESERVATION  DIVISION 

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Parlin,  Charles  Coolidge. 

The  merchandising  of  textiles ;  an  address  delivered  be- 
fore the  tenth  annual  convention  of  the  National  whole- 
sale dry  goods  association,  by  Charles  Coolidge  Parlin  ... 
Philadelphia,  The  National  wholesale  dry  goods  associ- 
ation [1914] 


35  p.    19i 


cm 


1.  Dry-goods — U.  S.     2^Department  stores, 
wholesale  dry  goods  a9<f5ciation.    ii.  Title. 


3.  Shopping.        i.  National 


Library  of  Congress 

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The  Merchandising  of 

Textiles 


An   address     delivered    before    the 
TENTH  ANNUAL  CONVENTION 


OP 


The   National  Wholesale  Dry  Goods 

Association 


BY 


Charles  Coolidge   Parlin 

Manager,  Division  of  Commercial  Research 
Curtis  Publishing  Co.,  Philadelphia 


Published  by 

THE  NATIONAL  WHOLESALE  DRY  GOODS  ASSOCIATION 

General  Offices— 505  Arch  Street,  Philadelphia 


> 


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THE  MERCHANDISING  OF  TEXTILES 


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Soon  after  I  was  married,  my  wife  invited  me 
to  accompany  her  on  a  shopping  tour,  and  being 
unsophisticated,  I  accepted.  On  the  way  down 
town,  she  said  to  me  confidentially,  "The  article 
we  wish  to  buy  is  at  Smith's.  Where  shall  we  go 
first?" 

We  laugh  at  this  question  because  we  are 
men.  It  was  a  sensible  question,  but  I  returned 
a  foolish  answer.  I  said,  "Let  us  go  first  to 
Smith's."  This  broke  up  the  shopping  tour,  and 
it  was  many  a  day  before  I  was  invited  to  par- 
ticipate in  another. 

Underlying  that  apparently  foolish  question 
and  that  really  foolish  answer  is  the  philosophy 
that  explains  the  creation  of  the  department  store 
of  to-day. 

Men  and  women  differ  in  their  buying.  My 
wife  did  not  suppose  it  possible  that  I  would  be 
willing  to  make  an  important  purchase  without 
first  satisfying  myself  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the. 
choice  by  looking  at  several  stocks,  and  on  the 
other  hand  it  did  not  seem  to  me  fair  to  ask  a 
dealer  to  display  his  goods  when  we  had  no  inten- 
tion of  buying  from  him. 


\ 


/ 


L/ 


A  man  in  his  buying  is  usually  impelled  by 
one  of  four  influences : 

First.  Convenience. — "Where  is  the 
nearest  place  a  collar  may  be  found?"  he  in- 
quires. 

Second.  Impulse. — Walking  down  the 
street  he  is  attracted  by  a  window  display  and 
unexpectedly  purchases  a  necktie,  the  pattern 
of  which  pleases  him. 

Third.  Custom. — He  goes  in  a  routine 
way  to  an  accustomed  place  where  he  will  be 
greeted  with,  "Good  morning,  John,"  and 
where  he  can  say,  "Charge  it,  Bill,"  and  get 
out  without  encountering  any  red  tape. 

Fourth.  Brand. — He  may  go  some 
distance  out  of  his  way  to  find  a  desired  brand 
of  overcoat  or  hat  or  collar,  for  in  his  buying 
he  depends  much  on  brand. 

Price  is  not  listed  as  a  special  influence,  but 
it  operates  to  modify  the  buying  done  under  any 
of  the  given  influences,  for  man  is  not  disregard- 
ful  of  price.  In  selecting  his  customary  store  he 
may  choose  the  cheapest  one  in  town  because  he 
wants  to  be  saving;  sometimes  he  is  led  by  the 
advertisement  of  a  cut-price  sale,  to  a  department 
store,  into  which  as  a  rule  he  dislikes  to  go.  But 
in  men's  buying  there  is  little  of  shopping.    A 


man  does  not  go  from  one  store  to  another  com- 
paring values  before  making  a  selection.  When 
he  has  entered  a  store,  he  lacks  the  courage  to 
leave  without  buying,  and  even  though  he  feels 
that  he  is  "worsted"  in  the  trade,  he  is  likely  to 
tolerate  it  this  once,  although  he  may  make  up  his 
mind  never  to  go  to  the  store  again. 

Woman's  purchases  are  of  two  distinct 
classes,  and  from  the  standpoint  of  a  manufac- 
turer, it  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world  in 
merchandising  method  as  to  which  of  these  two 
classes  he  is  trying  to  sell. 

These  two  classes  we  call  "convenience  goods" 
and  "shopping  lines."  Convenience  goods  com- 
prise notions,  cottons  under  15c.  a  yard,  stock- 
ings, for  the  children,  and  in  general,  the  lower 
end  of  woman's  purchases.  An  inventory  of  a 
suburban  dry  goods  shop  will  furnish  a  complete  / 
list  of  convenience  goods.  These  lines  are  bought^ 
under  the  same  influences  that  affect  men:  (1) 
at  a  convenient  store,  or  (2)  by  impulse,  or  (3) 
at  an  accustomed  place,  or  (4)  by  brand.  There 
is  little  or  no  comparison  of  values. 

Shopping  lines  in  general  comprise  the  upper 
end  of  woman's  purchases — cloaks  and  suits,  car- 
pets, millinery,  the  better  grades  of  hosiery  and 
underwear,  and  all  those  articles  which  a  woman  l^ 
records  on  her  mental  shopping  tablet  (which 
never  forgets),  and  of  which  she  defers  the  pur- 
chase until  a  trip  to  her  shopping  center.    In  these 


lines  a  woman  does  want  to  compare  values.  She 
wants  to  go  to  one  store,  then^o  a  second,  then 
to  a  third,  and  after  having  seen  three  stocks,  to 
make  her  choice,  by  comparing  quality,  price  and 
style. 

In  the  sale  of  any  shopping  line  monopoly  is 
impossible,  for  w^omen  cannot  compare  values  if 
there  be  but  one  stock.  We  found  a  man  who  ^ 
had  a  monopoly  of  the  dry  goods  business  in  a 
small  city,  but  he  carried  no  real  stock  of  ladies' 
ready-to-wear — just  a  few  emergency  garments. 
We  asked  him  why  this  was,  and  he  replied :  **I 
used  to  carry  a  stock  of  ladies'  ready-to-wear  and 
did  a  good  business,  when  I  had  a  competitor.  He 
also  did  a  good  business,  but  he  closed  up,  and 
then  I  had  to  discontinue  the  line,  because  the 
women  gave  me  the  first  look  and  then  went  over 
into  a  near-by  city  and  made  their  purchases 
there.  I  could  not  afford  to  carry  a  stock  for  the 
ladies  to  look  at  when  they  never  bought." 

Thus  it  appears  that  if  a  man  secures  a  mon-  / 
opoly  of  the  dry  goods  business  of  any  community, 
the  women  of  the  community  will  seek  their  shop- 
ping lines  in  neighboring  cities  or  will  purchase 
by  the  catalog  route.  Hence,  monopoly  is  impos- 
sible. As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  woman  wants  to/ 
compare  values  in  three  stores.  Why  three,  I  do 
not  know ;  perhaps  it  is  the  limit  of  her  endurance. 
But  whatever  may  be  the  philosophy,  it  is  evident 
that  three  is  the  magic  number  in  woman's  shop- 


#- 


-^ 


ping;  for  in  almost  every  city  where  shopping 
lines  are  carried,  you  find  just  three  important 
stores  with  these  lines— seldom  less  and  seldom 
more— until  you  reach  cities  of  25,000  population. 
Then  the  number  increases  very  slowly. 

Of  the  cities  with  more  than  200,000  popula- 
tion there  are  two  which  have  only  three  stores 
each  that  do  upwards  of  $1,000,000;  six  cities 
have  four  stores  each  of  this  grade;  nine  cities 
have  five  each;  three  cities  have  six  each;  four 
cities  have  seven  each,  and  there  are  only  three 
cities  in  the  United  States  which  have  more  than 
seven  department  stores  that,  in  our  judgment, 
are  doing  more  than  $1,000,000  of  business  each. 

When  the  number  reaches  six,  there  is  apt  to  ^/ 
be  a  division  into  two  classes— three  stores  carry- 
ing merchandise  that  is  medium  and  up,  and 
three  carrying  merchandise  that  is  medium  and 
down ;  and  the  women  who  shop  regularly  in  one 
group  seldom  visit  the  other.  The  sale  of  shop- 
ping lines,  therefore,  is  sharply  concentrated  into 
a  few  stores  in  each  city. 

The  sale  of  shopping  lines  is  also  concentrat- 
ed into  a  comparatively  few  cities.  We  divide 
cities  into  two  classes — shopping  centers,  and  sub- 
urban. A  shopping  center  is  a  city  that  draws 
more  trade  from  outside  than  it  loses  to  other 
places.  A  suburban  city  is  one  that  loses  more 
trade  than  it  draws  in  from  the  outside.  The 
importance«of  the  distinction  lies  in  the  fact  that 


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the  city  which  draws  in  trade,  draws  it  in  shop- 
ping lines,  and  hence  has  a  group  of  shopping 
stores;  while  the  city  that  loses  more  trade  than  y/ 
it  draws  in,  loses  it  in  shopping  lines  and  its  stores 
tend  to  become  merely  shops  of  convenience  goods. 

Between  these  is  a  class  of  cities  which  we 
call  semi-suburban.  These  lose  some  trade  and 
attract  some  trade,  and  on  the  whole  just  about 
hold  their  own.  They  have  stores  which  carry 
shopping  lines  of  the  lower  grade — for  example, 
cloaks  and  suits  of  the  value  of  $25  and  down. 

The  distinction  between  shopping  center  and  y 
suburban  has  little  reference  to  the  size  of  a  city.  / 
Some  of  the  suburbs  of  New  York  and  Boston, 
with  100,000  population,  are  suburban,  their 
stores  for  the  most  part  carrying  only  convenience 
goods ;  while  a  Western  village  with  a  population 
of  2,500  is  often  a  shopping  center  to  which  10,000 
people  come  to  make  their  purchases  of  cloaks, 
suits,  draperies,  and  other  shopping  lines. 

Thus  we  find  that  shopping  lines  are  sharply 
concentrated  into  a  relatively  small  number  of 
cities  and  into  a  very  small  number  of  stores 
within  each  city. 

I  am  not  an  advertising  man  and  desire  to 
avoid  advertising  in  discussing  this  subject.    But 
I  want  to  anticipate  a  wrong  conclusion  which  / 
manufacturers  sometimes  draw  from  this  story 
of  concentration.     The  manufacturer  ^f  a  shop- 

8 


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ping  line  sometimes  says:  "My  line  is  sold  in  ^ 
comparatively  few  cities;  I  will  concentrate  all 
my  sales  efforts  in  those  cities  and  will  not  use 
national  publicity."  But  such  a  manufacturer 
overlooks  the  important  fact  that  these  cities  are 
shopping  centers  only  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that 
people  come  in  from  the  outside  to  trade.  Every 
woman  in  the  United  States  who  has  the  price  and 
the  taste  to  appreciate  his  article,  is  a  potential 
customer.  It  is  quite  as  necessary  to  reach  the 
woman  who  comes  from  the  outside  as  it  is  to 
reach  the  residents  of  the  city ;  in  fact,  so  far  as 
a  nationally  exploited  article  is  concerned,  the^ 
woman  outside  is  better  worth  reaching.  For  the 
woman  in  the  city  buys  shopping  lines  largely  by 
watching  for  special  sales.  She  reads  the  an- 
nouncements on  Sunday  to  see  whether  she  shall 
go  into  the  city  on  Monday  morning.  But  the 
woman  outside  who  can  make  a  trip  to  her  shop- 
ping center  but  once  a  month  or  once  in  six 
months,  cannot  avail  herself  of  these  daily  sales, 
and  therefore  does  not  heed  the  announcements 
of  the  daily  press,  but  reads  instead  the  advertis- 
ing pages  of  her  magazines  for  suggestions  as  to 
styles  and  qualities  of  merchandise. 

When  she  goes  to  the  city  she  has  not  made  ^ 
up  her  mind  to  buy  a  certain  brand.  Bless  you, 
no !  She  is  going  to  the  city  to  compare  values. 
A  man  may  be  persuaded  by  advertising  to  de- 
mand a  certain  make  of  overcoat  and  to  insist  on 
having  no  other,  because  he  is  averse  to  shopping. 


% 


( 


But  a  woman  will  not  make  up  her  mind  in  ad- 
vance. When  she  compares  values,  a  line  about 
which  she  recalls  having  read — if  it  holds  its  own 
with  its  competition  in  style  and  quality — is  likely 
to  be  chosen,  because  the  recollection  of  her  read- 
ing brings  conviction  of  its  worth. 

Since  58%  of  the  population  of  the  United 
States  live  in  communities  of  less  than  5,000  pop- 
ulation and  since  for  the  purchase  of  shopping 
lines  a  large  part  of  this  population  swells  the 
trade  of  the  shopping  center,  a  manufacturer  with 
a  line  of  concentrated  trade  who  confines  his  ex- 
ploitation to  the  cities  in  which  he  is  represented, 
is  obviously  overlooking  the  main  portion  of  his 
possible  customers. 

In  passing,  perhaps  it  may  be  well  to  add 
that  if  a  manufacturer  has  an  advertised  shopping 
line  of  manufactured  goods  like  cloaks  and  suits/ 
he  can  advantageously  confine  his  line  to  one  of 
the  three  department  stores  in  a  shopping  center ; 
for  since  women  will  look  at  three  stocks  before 
making  a  purchase,  they  will  see  his  line,  and  the 
active  pushing  of  one  store  may  be  worth  more 
than  the  passive  handling  of  three.  Besides,  in 
such  a  line  the  woman  is  looking  for  something  ex- 
clusive, and  if  this  line  is  on  display  in  every 
store,  she  is  apt  to  think  that  it  is  too  common. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  manufacturer  has 
an  advertised  material  such  as  lace  or  silks,  he 
will  obtain  maximum  sales  by  placing  stocks  in 

10 


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-^ 


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all  the  stores,  for  in  such  lines  women  shop  on  ^ 
patterns  and  accept  a  recognized  brand  as  a  guar- 
antee of  quality. 

Since  shopping  lines  are  concentrated  into  a 
relatively  small  number  of  cities  and  into  a  very 
small  number  of  stores  within  each  city,  if  a  man- 
ufacturer has  a  shopping  line  the  number  of 
stores  which  can  profitably  carry  his  line  is  so 
small  that  he  can  afford  to  cover  the  field  with 
his  own  salesmen,  selling  direct.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  manufacturer  has  a  convenience  line,  / 
to  get  anything  like  an  adequate  representation 
he  must  reach  the  suburban  cities  and  the  rural 
stores.    To  him,  therefore,  the  jobber  is  essential. 

From  the  jobber's  standpoint  it  is  for  this 
reason  a  matter  of  considerable  importance  to 
know  what  per  cent,  of  the  trade  is  shopping  lines 
and  what  per  cent,  is  convenience  goods.  To 
determine  this,  we  made  a  study  of  the  textile 
jobbing  and  retailing  situation  in  every  one  of 
the  100  largest  cities,  and  also  in  a  considerable 
number  of  minor  cities  in  different  portions  of  the 
country,  traveling  32,000  miles  and  interviewing 
more  than  1,000  manufacturers,  jobbers  and  re- 
tailers. 

In  each  city  we  estimated  the  volumes  of 
business  of  the  department  stores  individually 
and  added  them.  On  the  basis  of  these  estimates 
we  also  made  estimates  for  those  cities  to  which 
we  did  not  go,  and  reached  the  conclusion  that  the 

11 


/i 


total  amount  of  dry  goods  and  ready-to-wear  busi- 


ness  in  the  United  States  was,  in  1912,  $2,094,- 
585,000,  exclusive  of  that  done  by  the  catalog 
houses. 

It  may  be  said  in  passing  that  one  of  the  in- 
teresting features  of  this  calculation  is  the  im-/ 
portance  in  the  aggregate  of  minor  stores,  for 
after  you  have  eliminated  the  dry  goods  and 
ready-to-wear  business  of  the  five  largest  stores 
in  the  United  States,  you  still  have  approximately  / 
$2,000,000,000  of  business  left. 

For  each  of  these  cities  we  estimated  also  a 
trading  population — that  is,  we  estimated  the 
number  of  men,  women  and  children  who  are  sup- 
plied in  shopping  lines  by  regular  visits  to  the 
shopping  center.  We  divided  this  trading  popula- 
tion into  our  estimated  volume  of  business  and 
found  that  the  average  expenditure  per  man, 
woman  and  child  of  trading  population  in  the  100 
largest  cities  was  $30.94. 

The  per  capita  expenditures  in  the  individual/ 
cities  varied  considerably,  but  the  most  interest-, 
ing  fact  was  that  for  every  variation,  above  or 
below  normal,  an  economic  reason  could  be  found. 
In  no  case  was  it  necessary  to  fall  back  upon  the 
assertion  that  in  one  city  the  merchants  were  agr- 
gressive  and  in  another  they  are  failing  to  de- 
velop their  opportunities. 

Important  shopping  centers  like  New  York, 
Chicago,  Philadelphia  and  Boston  were  all  above 

12 


* 


"S^-/'  H^ 


the  normal  because  the  people  who  come  from 
outside  to  shop  are  the  large  spenders  and  count 
for  more  in  dollars  than  they  appear  to  count  in 
numbers ;  and  conversely,  semi-suburban  cities  are 
sub-normal,  because  the  people  who  go  out  are 
the  larger  spenders. 

Capital  cities  as  a  rule  are  sub-normal,  be- 
cause the  people  come  from  outside  for  politics 
and  society  rather  than  to  buy,  and  because  the 
merchants  are  overshadowed  by  the  politicians. 
A  strong  man  frequently  hesitates  to  establish 
himself  in  a  capital  city  where  he  must  be  of  less 
importance  than  the  Governor  and  his  Staff,  while 
a  weaker  man  who  does  start,  does  not  have  civic 
responsibility  thrust  upon  him,  and  his  store  often 
reflects  the  narrowness  of  his  life. 

Nationality   also    is    an    influence;    German  y 
women,  for  example,  spend  less  in  the  department 
stores  than  women  of  some  other  races. 

So  far  as  the  100  largest  cities  are  concerned, 
department  store  merchandising  has  been  con- 
ducted successfully  enough  to  secure  the  available 
trade,  but  with  minor  cities,  it  sometimes  happens 
that  where  three  cities  are  located  in  a  single 
county,  one  city  by  greater  aggressiveness  may 
attract  to  itself  a  larger  portion  of  the  rural  trade. 
That  is,  within  a  county  three  minor  cities  may*^ 
frequently  compete  for  county  business,  as  three 
stores  in  a  city  compete  among  themselves  for  the 
available  business. 

13 


v/ 


But  within  any  given  area  the  volume  of  de- 
partment store  business  is  a  fairly  definite  quan- 
tity. In  such  a  territory  there  is  in  the  hands  of 
the  women  a  certain  definite  amount  that  they 
may  spend.  Of  that  a  fairly  definite  proportion 
will  seek  the  channels  of  concentrated  trade  and 
a  fairly  definite  proportion  will  be  spent  in  spe- 
cialty houses  and  convenience  stores. 

In  a  city  where  department  store  methods 
have  been  fully  developed,  the  volume  of  depart- 
ment store  business  can  be  materially  increased  in 
only  one  of  three  ways : 

First.  By  increasing  the  population  or 
improving  transportation  facilities,  so  that  a 
larger  number  of  people  can  advantageously 
come  to  the  center ; 

Second.  By  increasing  the  prosperity 
of  the  community  so  that  a  larger  amount  of 
money  is  in  the  hands  of  the  people  to  spend ; 

Third.  By  the  addition  of  new  lines  to 
the  department  stores. 

Recently,  in  a  large  American  city,  a  material 
expansion  in  department  store  activity  took  place. 
Ten  million  dollars  of  additional  business  was 
needed  to  render  profitable  the  new  buildings  and 
the  expanded  stocks.  But  the  department  store 
group  of  this  city  was  already  receiving  the  full 
amount  that  that  community  had  to  spend  in  the 

14 


I 


jkwl- 


-'^. 


*^> 


1 


channels  of  concentrated  trade.  No  new  methods 
of  display  or  exploitation  were  able  to  produce 
the  amount,  and  disaster  was  inevitable. 

We  would  not  be  understood  as  minimizing 
the  value  of  the  service  that  has  been  performed 
by  the  great  leaders  in  retail  merchandising.  A 
few  leaders  have  shown  the  way;  many  others 
have  followed  and  have  adopted  the  methods  of 
the  leaders  to  meet  their  local  conditions,  and  de- 
partment store  methods,  as  they  exist  to-day,  are 
the  creation  of  many  able  minds.  But  the  point 
I  wish  to  make  is  that  certain  economic  conditions 
rendered  possible  a  certain  volume  of  concentrat- 
ed trade  and  the  service  which  our  great  mer- 
chandising leaders  performed  was  in  supplying  " 
facilities  for  shopping  trade;  and  that  when  the 
facilities  were  offered,  the  trade  came  naturally. 

Since  the  volume  of  department  store  busi- 
ness in  any  community  depends  upon  economic 
conditions  rather  than  upon  merchandising  meth- 
ods, if  the  economic  conditions  are  properly  un- 
derstood the  query  arises  whether  the  volume  of 
department  store  business  for  a  city  may  not  be 
estimated  approximately  without  an  inspection  of 
its  department  stores. 

Acting  upon  this  thought,  with  an  Atlas  and 
a  Census  Report,  we  estimated  for  every  city  in 
the  United  States  above  5,000  population,  a  trad- 
ing population;  that  is,  we  sought  to  determine 
what  population  seemed  likely  to  come  to  that 

15 


L^ 


city  to  buy  shopping  lines.  We  then  obtained 
from  the  city  clerks  in  these  cities  information 
concerning  the  industry  back  of  the  city,  the  pre- 
vailing nationality,  the  per  cent,  of  illiterates,  and 
the  per  cent,  of  colored.  We  also  asked  the  city 
clerk  to  give  us  his  estimate  of  the  trading  popu- 
lation. In  60%  of  the  replies  our  theoretical  esti- 
mates differed  from  the  city  clerks'  figures  by  less 
than  25%,  and  were  allowed  to  stand.  In  the 
other  instances,  the  original  estimates  were  re- 
viewed and  where  the  clerk's  estimates  seemed 
credible,  the  original  figures  were  modified. 

With  this  data  before  us,  we  made  a  theo- 
retical estimate  of  the  volume  of  department  store 
business  in  every  one  of  these  cities — that  is,  in 
about  1,200  cities  in  all. 

These  estimates  are  being  used  by  some  sales 
organizations  to  check  up  the  uniformity  of  their 
distribution.  A  manufacturer  who  is  selling  a 
department  store  line  should  have  a  certain  frac- 
tion of  1%  of  our  estimate  in  each  city,  making, 
of  course,  allowances  for  the  variations  due  to 
the  effect  of  climate,  section,  nationality,  and  size 
of  city,  upon  his  line.  The  salesmen  are  instruct- 
ed that  these  are  only  theoretical  estimates,  but 
that  they  have  been  carefully  made,  and  it  is  be- 
lieved that  if  the  economic  conditions  were  prop- 
erly understood,  the  estimate  is  reasonably  accur- 
ate. If  it  seems  to  the  salesman  impossible  to 
secure  the  volume  of  business  theoretically  esti- 

16 


s^ 


I 


mated,  he  is  requested  to  make  a  report  on  eco- 
nomic conditions  surrounding  the  town  so  that 
the  reason  for  the  error  may  be  ascertained. 

These  estimates,  issued  in  a  volume  entitled, 
''Encyclopedia  of  Cities,''  may  be  seen  in  any  one 
of  the  Curtis  Publishing  Company's  oflSces,  which 
are  located  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago, 
Boston  and  San  Francisco,  where  may  also  be  seen 
the  four  rather  bulky  volumes  which  comprise 
the  report  on  the  textile  investigation  and  the 
other  volumes  issued  by  the  Research  Division. 

Fundamentally,  then,  the  volume  of  depart- 
ment store  business  is  the  result  of  an  economic 
law  and  the  foundation  upon  which  that  law  rests 
is  made  up  of  three  essential  facts: 

First.  That  the  amount  of  money  to  be  spent 
in  any  given  community  in  any  given  year  is  a 
fairly  definite  amount. 

Second.  That  a  certain  fairly  definite  pro- 
portion of  that  amount  naturally  is  expended  by 
women;  and 

Third.  That  a  fairly  definite  percentage  of 
women's  purchases  naturally  seek  the  channels  of 
concentrated  trade. 

The  thing  that  has  made  the  department  store 
is  not  textiles,  but  the  fact  that  women  in  certain 
lines  wish  to  compare  values.    Historically,  most 

17 


w  >> 

i 


department  stores  have  grown  out  of  dry  goods 
stores,  and  this  is  perfectly  natural  in  that  dry 
goods  is  one  of  the  chief  lines  of  woman's  shop- 
ping. The  department  store  manager  in  judging 
any  line  should  ask  himself,  not,  "Is  this  consist- 
ent with  department  store  lines?''  but  rather  these 
two  questions: 

First,  ''Do  women  buy  this  line?" 

Second,  If  so,  "Is  it  a  line  in  which  women 
wish  to  compare  values?" 

If  it  is  a  line  that  is  bought  by  men,  he  can 
sell  only  that  portion  of  it  in  which  woman  is 
an  influence  in  men's  purchases,  for  the  depart- 
ment store,  first,  last  and  all  the  time  is  a  woman's 
store. 

Man  is  not  a  shopper;  he  is  anti-shopping. 
There  is,  therefore,  but  little  concentration  in 
men's  lines. 

To  give  a  concrete  illustration :  A  New  York 
manufacturer  propounded  this  question:  "Why 
is  it  that  although  a  multitude  of  men  come  daily 
into  lower  New  York,  we  have  no  men's  clothing 
stores  that  seem  any  way  nearly  adequate  to  sup- 
ply the  needs  of  these  men  for  ready-made  cloth- 
ing, and  yet,  although  relatively  few  women  come 
below  Forty-second  street,  we  have  in  lower  New 
York  the  largest  and  finest  displays  of  women's 
ready-to-wear  in  America?" 

18 


i 


We  replied  to  the  inquiry  by  mentioning  a 
village  in  Maine  with  which  the  manufacturer  was 
familiar,  and  stated  that  while  in  that  village 
there  was  no  real  stock  of  ladies'  ready-to-wear, 
there  were  not  only  one  but  several  stocks  of 
men's  clothing  that  were  ample  for  a  village  of 
5,000. 

He  granted  the  accuracy  of  the  statement, 
and  we  said,  "This  is  not  an  accident.  It  is  the 
expression  of  a  tendency.  The  women  of  that 
village  are  not  content  to  buy  the  better  grades 
of  their  ready-to-wear  in  the  village.  They  go 
to  Waterville,  to  Portland,  to  Boston,  to  New 
York.  The  men,  on  the  contrary,  are  content  to 
buy  their  clothing  in  the  most  convenient  locality 
that  will  furnish  them  a  reasonable  assortment 
of  sizes  and  styles  at  the  price  they  are  willing 
to  pay. 

"The  concentration  in  women's  lines  may  be 
likened  to  a  wave  motion.  From  the  Maine  village 
many  women  go  to  Waterville;  from  Waterville, 
some  to  Portland;  from  Portland,  the  wave  is 
passed  on  to  Boston;  and  New  York, — ^the  focus 
of  all  these  lines  of  radiating  wave  motion — ^pre- 
sents the  greatest  opportunity  in  America  for 
the  sale  of  women's  ready-to-wear  garments,  and 
has  therefore  the  largest  and  finest  stocks  of  style 
goods. 

"Since  in  the  men's  lines  there  is  little 
of  concentration,  the  trade  is  held  back  in  the 

19 


^  ^V 


I'i 


( 


ill 


suburbs  and  minor  cities;  the  multitude  of  men 
who  come  daily  into  lower  New  York,  come  to 
work  and  not  to  buy,  and  there  is  little  oppor- 
tunity in  lower  New  York  for  the  sale  of  men's 
clothing.  But,  while  comparatively  few  women 
do  come  below  Forty-second  street,  those  who  do 
come,  come  to  buy,  and  to  buy  style  goods  rather 
than  price  goods,  which  offers  a  unique  oppor- 
tunity to  sell  high-grade  merchandise  on  the  style 
rather  than  the  price  basis." 

Since  men  are  not  shoppers,  the  department 
store  facilities  for  the  comparison  of  values  do 
not  attract  men's  trade,  and  the  stores  can  suc- 
cessfully sell  men's  lines  only  so  far  as  women  are 
an  influence  in  their  selection. 

For  example,  north  of  the  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line  and  east  of  the  Mississippi  River,  men's  cloth- 
ing departments  in  department  stores  are  fre- 
quently successful ;  for  in  this  section  there  is  a 
spirit  of  co-operation  between  the  sexes.  A  man 
and  his  wife  often  have  a  single  bank  account,  and 
the  man  helps  his  wife  select  a  hat,  while  she,  in 
turn,  helps  him  choose  a  suit  of  clothes.  Some- 
times Mary  selects  for  her  husband  three  suits  at 
a  department  store  and  has  them  sent  home  on 
approval.  He  accepts  one  and  she  returns  the 
other  two.  More  frequently  she  explores  in  ad- 
vance, and  then,  taking  John  with  her,  says, 
"These  are  the  three  best  suits,  John,"  and  he, 
lazy  fellow,  says,  "Well,  the  gray  one  looks  good 
enough  to  me." 

20 


^i^  -jI 


k 


I  do  not  mean  to  assert  for  a  moment  that 
most  of  the  buying  of  men's  clothing  is  done  on 
this  basis.  If  it  were,  there  would  be  little  room 
for  the  existence  of  independent  men's  clothing 
shops.  But  there  is,  in  this  section  of  the  country, 
a  sufficient  amount  of  woman's  influence  in  the 
selection  of  the  clothing  of  men,  and  especially 
of  youths,  to  render  financially  successful  the 
clothing  departments  of  the  department  stores. 

South  of  the  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  the  sit- 
uation is  different.  An  air  of  somewhat  haughty 
independence  characterizes  the  relations  of  sexes. 
A  man  and  his  wife  more  frequently  have  separate 
bank  accounts  and  each  is  perfectly  capable,  if  you 
please,  sir,  of  looking  after  his  or  her  own  ward- 
robe. It  is  of  questionable  propriety  for  a  woman 
to  help  her  husband  pick  out  a  suit  of  clothes,  and 
not  at  all  proper  for  a  young  lady  to  help  her 
sweetheart  pick  out  a  necktie.  Hence  in  this  sec- 
tion, as  a  rule,  clothing  departments  in  department 
stores  are  not  financially  successful,  and  most  of 
the  exceptions  to  the  rule  are  in  those  stores  which 
were  originally  men's  stores  and  later  added  / 
women's  lines. 

In  the  far  West,  which  in  most  merchandising 
matters  is  midway  between  the  North  and  the 
South,  since  it  draws  people  from  both  sections, 
we  find  that  men's  clothing  departments  are 
rather  more  successful  than  in  the  South,  but  less 
successful  than  those  of  the  North.     A  depart- 

21 


ment  store  merchant  on  the  Missouri  River  who 
said  that  he  had  looked  the  matter  up  carefully 
with  reference  to  putting  in  a  clothing  depart- 
ment, declared  that  there  was  not  a  single  cloth- 
ing department  west  of  Chicago  that  was  making 
a  financial  success.  I  think  that  he  overstated  the 
case,  but  as  concerns  the  general  tendency  he  is 
probably  correct. 

In  men's  furnishing  goods,  probably  85%  of 
the  sales  in  the  department  stores  throughout  1the 
country  are  to  women.  Some  department  store 
managers  have  said,  "This  is  a  men's  line.  We 
must  encourage  men's  trade.  We  will,  therefore, 
set  aside  a  portion  of  the  store  and  separate  it  by 
screens  so  as  to  keep  the  women  out,  and  have  a 
nice,  quiet  corner  where  the  men  may  buy,"  and 
they  certainly  do  succeed  in  having  a  nice,  quiet 
corner. 

Other  department  store  managers  with  great- 
er shrewdness  have  said,  "We  do  not  care  to  whom 
we  sell  men's  furnishing  goods,  so  long  as  we  sell 
them,"  and  have  placed  their  counters  of  men's 
neckties  and  underwear  near  the  elevators  where 
the  women  congregate  thickest,  and  they  have  sold 
large  quantities. 

The  story  of  men's  underwear  is  about  this : 
The  boy's  mother  buys  his  underwear  until  he 
reaches  about  seventeen,  when  he  issues  a  declar- 
ation of  independence  and  sallies  forth  to  pur- 
chase his  own  nether  garments.    But  later,  being 

22 


< 


T9&"^ 


married,  with  saner  judgment,  he  once  more 
turns  the  matter  over  to  a  woman  and  lives  in 
peace  and  comfort  ever  after. 

In  hardware  lines,  that  portion  of  the  trade 
which  covers  kitchen  utensils  and  other  lines  of 
women's  purchases  seems  to  be  passing  into  the 
hands  of  the  department  stores.  Building  ma- 
terials and  other  lines  which  men  buy  are  remain- 
ing in  the  specialty  stores,  while  lines  that  are 
bought  by  the  sexes  in  co-operation,  such  as  stoves, 
are  being  successfully  handled  by  some  depart- 
ment stores  in  those  sections  where  co-operation 
among  the  sexes  is  common. 

In  jewelry,  which  is  for  the  most  part  a 
woman's  shopping  line,  the  medium  and  lower 
grades  seem  to  be  passing  into  the  hands  of  the 
department  stores,  impoverishing  suburban  jew- 
elry stores  and  reducing  them  to  repair  shops. 
But  gems  and  expensive  jewelry,  like  other  top 
price  exclusive  lines,  tend  to  remain  in  the  hands 
of  specialty  houses. 

To  sum  up,  for  a  department  store  to  make 
a  success  of  a  line,  in  the  first  place  it  is  necessary 
that  it  be  a  woman's  line.  In  the  second  place,  it 
must  be  a  line  which  women  buy  by  comparison 
of  values.  Woman's  shopping,  then,  made  possi- 
ble the  department  stores,  and  the  department 
stores,  by  furnishing  facilities  for  women's  shop- 
ping, have  tended  to  monopolize  this  shopping 
trade. 

23 


^ 


Of  convenience  articles,  the  department 
stores  can  sell  a  certain  portion,  but  cannot  mo- 
nopolize the  trade.  Wherever,  for  any  reason,  a 
department  store  is  the  most  convenient  place  jfor 
a  woman  to  buy,  or  wherever  it  becomes  her  cus- 
tomary place  for  ordering  daily  supplies,  or  wher- 
ever a  woman  in  passing  through  the  store  is  at- 
tracted by  a  display  of  convenience  goods,  the 
department  store  can  secure  her  trade.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  the  most  important  of  these  three 
motives  seems  to  be  the  last. 

As  you  approach  a  department  store,  you 
see  in  the  windows  displays  of  cloaks  and  suits 
and  draperies  and  other  shopping  lines.  When 
you  step  inside  you  find  that  these  lines  are  on 
the  second  or  the  eighth  floor  and  that  you  must 
pass  long  counters  of  gloves,  handkerchiefs,  no- 
tions and  other  convenience  articles  in  order  to 
reach  the  elevator.  The  department  store  man- 
ager, even  if  he  may  not  have  understood  the 
philosophy,  has  discovered  by  experience  that 
there  is  only  about  33  1-3%  chance  of  selling  the 
woman  who  comes  to  the  second  floor  to  look  at 
cloaks  and  suits,  but  he  has  discovered  that  if  he 
can  put  enough  hurdles  loaded  with  convenience 
articles  between  the  front  door  and  the  elevators, 
he  can  sell  his  visitors  enough  convenience  goods 
to  pay  for  waiting  on  them  upstairs  when  they 
do  not  buy. 

A  manufacturer  of  a  convenience  article  said 
that  in  New  York  his  line  was  represented  under 

24 


^ 


.iky     ^  I 


Ca^ 


his  own  brand  in  four  of  the  leading  stores.  No 
two  of  these  stores  sold  it  at  the  same  price  and 
one  store  sold  at  a  considerably  lower  price  than 
the  other  three ;  but  although  this  store  in  general 
volume  of  business  ranked  high,  in  the  sale  of  his 
line  it  was  by  far  the  least.  The  reason  for  the 
phenomenon,  it  seems,  was  the  fact  that  in  this 
store  his  line  was  carried  on  the  second  floor,  and 
although  there  seemed  to  be  sufficient  difference 
in  price  to  make  it  worth  while  for  the  woman  to 
go  out  of  her  way  to  buy,  as  a  matter  of  fact  she 
did  not  do  so.  Probably  the  real  explanation  is 
that  in  the  other  stores  this  article  was  being  sold 
because  it  attracted  the  attention  of  the  woman 
as  she  passed  through,  reminding  her  of  her 
future  need  for  it. 

An  important  consideration  from  the  stand- 
point of  jobbers  is:  "What  per  cent,  of  the 
$2,094,000,000  total  trade  of  the  country  is  shop- 
ping lines  and  what  per  cent,  is  convenience 
goods  T' 

If  the  manufacturer  has  shopping  lines  he 
can  afford  to  go  direct  to  the  large  stores.  If  he 
has  convenience  goods,  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to 
get  his  maximum  distribution,  to  use  the  jobber. 

We  found  for  the  most  part  that  merchants 
who  sold  more  than  $200,000  of  merchandise  per 
year  wanted  to  buy  direct.  A  man  who  is  buying 
less  than  $100,000  prefers  to  buy  of  the  jobber; 
he  wants  to  keep  his  stock  down  and  often  he  is 

25 


>^ 


financially  weak  and  leans  on  the  jobber.  We 
estimated  that  there  are  1140  stores  that  do  more 
than  $200,000  of  business  each,  and  these  stores 
together  do  43  per  cent,  of  our  $2,094,000,000. 
The  multitude  of  textile  stores  that  do  under 
$100,000  of  business,  we  estimated,  do  47  per 
cent,  of  that  total.  This  leaves  10  per  cent,  for 
the  class  between.  In  this  class,  if  a  merchant  is 
a  plunger  by  nature,  he  buys  large  quantities  and 
goes  direct;  if  he  is  conservative,  he  keeps  his 
stock  down  by  buying  from  the  jobber. 

Of  course,  large  stores  buy  some  things  from 
the  jobber ;  many  smaller  stores  buy  some  things 
direct.  If  we  offset  one  against  the  other  and 
divide  the  10  per  cent,  of  the  middle  class  evenly, 
it  gives  us  48  per  cent,  for  direct  channels  and  52 
per  cent,  for  jobbing  channels.  It  may  be  inter- 
esting to  note  that  when  we  totaled  our  estimates 
of  the  business  done  by  jobbing  firms  in  1912,  the 
amount  thus  ascertained  as  sold  by  jobbers  tallied 
almost  exactly  with  the  amount  estimated  from  a 
retail  standpoint  as  bought  through  jobbing  chan- 
nels; that  is,  when  the  problem  was  approached 
from  two  entirely  different  angles,  substantially 
the  same  results  were  attained. 

But  in  order  to  ascertain  the  per  cent,  of  any 
given  line  that  may  be  successfully  handled 
through  jobbing  channels,  it  is  necessary  to 
analyze  the  figures  more  closely,  for  in  the  48  per 
cent,  of  direct  sales  is  included  the  great  bulk  of 

26 


C^^ist, 


the  strictly  shopping  lines,  which  means,  of 
course,  that  it  contains  proportionately  less  of 
convenience  goods.  Thus  of  a  strictly  conveni- 
ence article,  such  as  black  and  white  thread,  I 
suppose  that  not  more  than  25  per  cent,  is  sold 
by  stores  included  in  our  direct  purchase  group, 
and  that  fully  75  per  cent,  is  sold  by  the  jobber 
class  of  stores;  and  in  convenience  goods  as  a 
whole,  at  least  70  per  cent,  seems  to  belong  logi- 
cally to  the  jobbing  trade  and  probably  not  more 
than  30  per  cent,  is  handled  by  those  stores  which 
are  actively  seeking  direct  purchase  connections. 

The  larger  stores  desire  to  buy  direct  for  at 
least  two  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  they  hope 
to  secure  for  themselves  some  portion  of  the 
middleman's  margin  of  profit;  and  in  the  second 
place,  it  pleases  their  pride  to  buy  direct.  They 
can  say  to  the  consumer,  "We  are  large  pur- 
chasers; there  is  no  middleman  between  the 
factory  and  the  consumer  but  ourselves,"  and 
hence,  even  where  the  jobber  meets  the  manu- 
facturers' prices,  the  large  store  prefers  to  buy 
direct.  The  jobber's  activities  have,  therefore, 
been  restricted  by  the  development  of  depart- 
ment stores  and  their  desire  to  buy  direct. 

But  this  has,  in  a  measure,  been  offset  by  a 
growing  tendency  on  the  part  of  merchants  to 
keep  their  stocks  down  and  make  frequent  pur- 
chases from  the  jobber.  A  wholesaler  in  one  of 
our  major  cities  was  recently  complaining  of  one 

27 


of  the  largest  department  stores,  saying,  *'I  like 
to  be  accommodating,  but  that  store  has  sent 
down  three  times  to-day  to  purchase  stock,  and  I 
think  it  ought  to  carry  a  sufficient  stock  to  last  all 
one  day/'  While  this  was  probably  an  extreme 
case,  the  economic  advantage  from  the  merchant's 
standpoint,  in  respect  of  space  and  also  of  inter- 
est on  investment,  in  allowing  the  wholesaler  to 
carry  the  stock,  is  obvious. 

A  study  of  retail  conditions  in  the  dry  goods 
field  shows  at  least  one  thing  with  perfect  clear- 
ness. The  jobber  performs  an  essentially  economic 
function.  We  hear  much  talk  of  the  elimination 
of  the  jobber;  but  there  is  no  other  expedient 
method  for  the  distribution  of  a  very  large  part 
of  the  dry  goods  merchandise.  The  jobber  will 
therefore  endure.  The  only  question  is,  "What 
shall  be  the  form,  the  size,  the  methods  of  job- 
bing firms?'*  On  these  problems  I  have  not  the 
presumption  to  attempt  to  instruct  those  who 
represent  in  this  organization  the  combined 
experience  of  dry  goods  jobbing  in  the  United 
States. 

In  jobbing  there  seems  to  be  no  present  tend- 
ency to  the  elimination  of  the  middle-sized  man. 
In  many  lines  of  manufacture  the  firm  of  medium 
size  is  being  driven  to  the  wall,  for  while  there  is 
an  opportunity  for  a  large  firm  to  do  a  national 
business  and  for  a  very  small  firm  to  adapt  some 
tool  to  the  purely  local  need,  there  seems  to  be  no 

28 


3 


X 


place  for  one  of  medium  size.  But  in  jobbing,  the 
middle-sized  firm  that  is  covering  a  radius  of  250 
to  400  miles  and  is  doing  two  or  four  million  dol- 
lars worth  of  business,  seems  to  be  competing  suc- 
cessfully against  the  national  jobber.  For  to  off- 
set the  advantage  which  any  large  firm  has 
through  its  ability  to  use  large  sums  of  money 
and  highly  organized  methods,  the  smaller  jobber 
has  several  advantages: 

First.  He  has  an  advantage  in  freight,  for 
his  goods  all  come  direct  from  the  factory. 

Second.     He  can  study  local  needs. 

Third.  He  is  conveniently  situated  to  cover 
the  territory  more  frequently. 

Fourth.    He  can  better  judge  credits. 

Fifth.  He  can  establish  close,  personal  rela- 
tions. 

Of  these  advantages,  perhaps  the  last  is  most 
important;  for  jobbing  relations  are  always  per- 
sonal. A  manufacturer  can  sell  his  good-will  for 
all  it  is  worth,  and  his  patrons  keep  right  on  buy- 
ing the  well-known  brand  and  do  not  know  that 
the  firm  has  changed  hands.  But  a  jobbing  firm 
can  not  sell  its  good-will  for  what  it  seems  rea- 
sonably worth;  for  their  customers  say,  "We 
knew  John  and  James,  but  we  do  not  know  the 
new  firm ;  we  will  trade  elsewhere."    The  local 

29 


i  Ti 


jobber  can  establish  personal  relations,  invite  his 
customers  to  his  home,  can  know  that  John's  wife 
is  sick  and  that  he  should  have  a  little  extra  credit 
or  that  his  child  has  died  and  that  a  letter  of  sym- 
pathy should  be  written.  Hence,  there  is  no  ap- 
parent tendency  at  the  present  time  for  jobbing 
to  be  concentrated  in  a  few  firms. 

There  are,  it  seems  to  me,  at  least  four  op- 
portunities for  the  jobber  which,  so  far  as  can 
now  be  foreseen,  seem  important  and  enduring. 

First.  There  is  a  great  mass  of  convenience 
goods  to  be  distributed  over  a  wide  area.  These 
are  the  real  basis  of  the  jobbing  industry.  Un- 
fortunately some  of  the  largest  staples,  like  do- 
mestics, are  being  handled  below  the  jobber's 
cost  of  doing  business,  and  from  a  jobbing  stand- 
point, it  seems  highly  desirable  that  something  be 
done,  if  possible,  to  secure  a  reasonable  margin 
of  profit  in  these  lines.  They  have  been  used  as  a 
bait  to  attract  buyers  for  other  lines,  but  that 
which  must  be  the  mainstay  of  the  jobbing  busi- 
ness ought  not  to  be  used  as  bait  for  other  pur- 
chases. 

Second.  The  large  jobber  who  has  a  na- 
tional distribution  has  an  opportunity  to  brand 
and  advertise  a  line,  and  as  such  to  become  a 
manufacturing  wholesaler  as  distinguished  from 
a  jobber.  I  believe  that  the  consumer  prefers  a 
manufacturer's  brand  to  a  jobber's  or  a  retailer's 

30 


fr-^-^ 


brand.  But  the  consumer  is  not  very  discriminat- 
ing. He  buys  a  brand  without  inquiring  what 
company  is  back  of  the  brand.  He  buys  the  brand 
as  an  experiment,  tries  its  quality,  and  if  satis- 
fied, continues  to  buy  it  so  long  as  the  quality 
pleases  him.  Hence,  a  jobber  who  assumes  the 
manufacturer's  function  of  branding  and  of  ad- 
vertising stands  to  the  consumer  as  a  manufac- 
turer and  secures  his  patronage.  He  also  stands 
to  the  retailer  as  a  manufacturer,  and  thus  com- 
petes with  manufacturers  in  selling  those  stores 
that  otherwise  insist  on  buying  through  direct 
channels. 

Third.  All  jobbers,  large  and  small,  may 
do  some  "filling  in"  business  with  the  direct 
purchase  stores.  It  seems  to  me  that  there  has 
been  some  unprofitable  friction  between  retailers 
and  jobbers  on  the  question  of  original  orders 
and  ''filling  in,"  and  that  it  would  be  advantageous 
for  both  if  a  more  amicable  solution  of  this  prob- 
lem could  be  reached.  It  is  advantageous  for  the 
store  that  does  more  than  $200,000  worth  of  busi- 
ness to  buy  many  of  its  lines  direct  on  its  initial 
orders,  but  this  store  can  profitably  buy  some  of 
its  lines  entirely  from  the  jobber  and  can  profit- 
ably make  some  of  its  original  orders  smaller  and 
use  jobbing  channels  more  extensively  to  fill  in 
orders,  and  the  jobber  can  afford  to  yield  the 
point  of  initial  orders  in  many  lines  (for  that  will 
be  lost  anyway) ,  in  order  to  secure  a  large  volume 

31 


^ 


of  business  in  fill-in  orders.  I  think  it 
will  be  wise  for  the  jobbers  to  carefully 
analyze  the  situation  and  determine  what  lines, 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  merchant,  can  ad- 
vantageously be  bought  direct  in  initial  orders 
and  concede  that  point,  but  urge  upon  the  mer- 
chants the  advantage  in  those  lines  of  giving  a 
larger  proportion  of  their  business  to  the  jobber 
on  the  "filling  in''  basis,  and  in  other  lines  demon- 
strate to  him  the  advantage  of  placing  his  entire 
order  through  jobbing  channels.  Thus  a  better 
understanding  between  jobbers  and  retailers  will 
be  attained,  co-operation  will  replace  friction  and 
the  margin  of  jobbing  will  be  extended  to  the  mu- 
tual advantage  of  both  jobber  and  retailer. 

Fourth.  Ready-to-wear,  which  in  the  first 
place  was  confined  to  the  shopping  grades  and, 
therefore,  naturally  went  to  the  retailer  by  the 
direct  sales  route,  has  now  extended  down  into 
the  convenience  grades,  such  as  cheap  house 
dresses,  men's  shirts  and  overalls,  and  becomes  a 
jobbing  possibility.  So  far  as  ready-to-wear  is  a 
shopping  line,  it  is  not  the  jobbers'  field,  but  those 
portions  of  the  ready-to-wear  business  which  are 
of  the  convenience  goods  type  can  probably  be 
distributed  most  economically  by  the  dry  goods 
jobbers.  An  addition  to  these  lines,  which  ordin- 
arily carry  a  good  margin  of  profit,  may  be  ad- 
vantageous to  many  jobbing  firms. 

There  is  a  drift  toward  a  better  quality  of 
merchandise.    From   Maine  to   California,  from 

32 


<  / 


Duluth  to  New  Orleans,  retailers  asserted  that 
the  tendency  to  buy  better  goods  is  evident.  This 
does  not  mean  a  tendency  to  buy  extreme  top- 
price  articles ;  for  so  far  as  the  department  stores 
are  concerned,  there  is  probably  less  opportunity 
to  sell  $150  suits  to-day  than  there  was  formerly, 
partly  because  those  who  buy  that  grade  of  gar- 
ments are  seeking  them  through  other  channels, 
partly  because  a  woman  who  formerly  bought 
one  suit  at  $150  now  buys  two  at  $80.  But  the 
drift  toward  quality  means  that  there  is  a  general 
lifting  up  of  the  lower  grades  of  merchandise 
toward  a  medium  or  high  quality.  "No  one  knows 
so  well  as  we  do,"  said  the  proprietor  of  one  of 
the  largest  junk  stores  in  America,  "the  increas- 
ing difficulty  of  selling  junk."  "Southern  trade  is 
cheap  trade  but  is  improving,"  declared  a  promi- 
nent Southern  jobber.  "We  used  to  think,"  said 
the  manager  of  a  large  Northern  department 
store,  "that  it  was  only  price  that  appealed  to 
women,  but  we  find  that  price  is  a  minor  consid- 
eration in  many  lines.  This  year  in  our  adver- 
tisements of  ready-to-wear,  we  mentioned  no 
prices,  depending  wholly  on  quality,  and  got 
splendid  results.  A  few  years  ago,  such  a  thing 
would  have  been  thought  impossible." 

Several  influences  are  co-operating  to  pro- 
duce this  demand  for  a  better  quality  of  mer- 
chandise. 

First.    The  effort  of  jobbers  and  retailers  to 

S3 


t 


/ 


sell  a  good  grade  of  merchandise,  knowing  that 
these  grades  offer  greater  values  to  the  con- 
sumers, and  that  in  serving  the  consumers'  best 
interest  lies  the  future  success  of  their  own  firms. 

Second.  The  department  stores  having  fur- 
nished facilities  for  shopping,  women  have  taken 
advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  train  themselves 
in  the  art  of  buying. 

Thi7-d.  The  national  magazines  have  carried 
quality  and  style  ideas  from  one  end  of  the  coun- 
try to  the  other  until  to-day  the  old  time  cross- 
roads trade  has  disappeared,  and  there  is  scarcely 
a  locality  in  America  where  last  season's  goods 
can  be  sold. 

Fourth.  The  schools  and  colleges  have  made 
women  more  intelligent  and  more  earnest.  In  the 
management  of  the  household  there  are  two 
economic  functions :  the  earning  of  money,  and 
the  spending  of  money,  the  former  usually  the 
duty  of  the  husband,  the  latter  often  the  privilege 
of  the  wife.  Many  women  have  come  to  realize 
that  the  happiness  and  economic  welfare  of  the 
family  depend  quite  as  much  upon  a  wise  expen- 
diture of  the  family  income  as  upon  a  successful 
gathering  of  wealth ;  and  hence  have  come  to  con- 
sider the  spending  of  money  not  as  a  privilege, 
but  as  a  serious  economic  duty  worthy  of  careful 

thought  and  effort. 

The  consuming  public  is  every  year  becom- 
ing more  intelligent  and  better  trained  in  buying. 

34 


01 


4 


f 


531 


^ 


This  deserves  serious  consideration  by  all  those 
interested  in  merchandising;  for  only  upon  a 
recognition  of  this  fact  can  successful  business  be 
founded.  We  talk  about  manufacturers,  jobbers 
and  retailers,  but  in  the  last  analysis  the  con- 
sumer is  king.  His  whim  makes  and  unmakes 
merchants,  jobbers  and  manufacturers;  whoever 
wins  his  confidence  has  won  the  race ;  whoever 
loses  it,  is  lost. 


35 


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